Helena
Civil War Arkansas

American Civil War
July 4, 1863

Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes's troops attacked Helena in an attempt to relieve pressure on Vicksburg.

Although the Rebels had more troops and did initially capture some of the fortifications, the Union forces repelled them.

Thus, Helena continued as an important Union enclave in the Trans-Mississippi theater and served as a base for the expedition that captured Little Rock.

Result(s): Union victory

Location: Phillips County

Campaign: Grant's Operations against Vicksburg (1863) previous battle in campaign Campaigns

Date(s): July 4, 1863

Principal Commanders: Major General Benjamin Prentiss [US]; Lieutenant General Theophilus H. Holmes [CS]

Forces Engaged: District of Eastern Arkansas [US]; District of Arkansas [CS]

Estimated Casualties: 1,842 total (US 206; CS 1,636)


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Arkansas Civil War History Book Club Reading Titles


Into the Mouth of the Cannon: A Historical Biography of the 18th Arkansas Infantry and the Civil War in the Western Theater from 1861 to 1863
No one knew the truths of slavery better than the slaves themselves, but no one consulted them until the 1930s. Then, recognizing that this generation of unique witnesses would soon be lost to history, the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project acted to interview as many former slaves as possible. In a continuation of the project's interest in the life histories of ordinary people, writers interviewed over two thousand former slaves, more than a third of them in Arkansas. These oral histories were first published in the 1970s in a thirty-nine-volume series organized by state, and they transformed America's understanding of slavery.
With Fire And Sword: Arkansas, 1861-1874 provides a scholarly examination of just how the events of the Civil War and the Reconstruction so heavily devastated the state of Arkansas, its population and its economy, that this southern state was never to fully regained the level of prosperity it had enjoyed prior to the war. A candid and detailed retracing of crucial decisions, their interplay, and their lasting legacy, With Fire And Sword is a welcome contribution to the growing library of Civil War literature and Reconstruction Era reference collections and reading lists.

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.